Fare integration

Fare integration refers to the practice in public transport ticketing where the same fare is charged on a journey between the same places, regardless of the operators or the interchanges used.

It is to be distinguished from payment integration, which refers to the same method of payment (for example, a transit card) being able to be used on multiple operators or modes of transport. Payment integration is a of fare integration, but not the other way round. For example, in the Netherlands, all fares can be paid by OV-chipkaart but a separate fare is still charged transferring between trains and buses even within a city region, while an integrated fare is charged for journeys between the same mode regardless of interchanges.